Recently it's been a bit of a dull period for me here Down Under - I've missed quite a few motors that I would've liked to get, exams at school taking up lots of time etc.
My "Wanted - Seagull Outboards" advert that has been on Gumtree Aus for a very long time finally turned up a good lead, which led to these.
1. THCL 1804 C3 with a barge-pusher lower unit
2. WHC 481 M9 also with a barge-pusher lower unit
The owner of both the motors asked me to give his WHC a check-over to make sure it's in good running condition, and he gave me THCL as a form of payment. I was suprised with the WHC as it was the first 102 Seagull I'd seen in a short shaft set-up with a barge-pusher gearbox.
The THCL needs the tiller stub to be 're-united' with the lower crankcase where it had broken off (no damage to the actual crankcase with regards to holes and the like) and also needs a new gear-lever as it is half broken. It's gear-lever is also the first one I've seen with only one hole drilled.
Updates coming soon
Cheers
BP
Too many Seagulls to count now!
Member SOS, AOMCI,
President of AOMCI's WOOC chapter
Small stud Charles (if for example the one on an AD is a big stud).
Thanks for the tip; am not sure if I will actually weld it or not... I have had great success with Pratley's Steel Putty before, I might give it a go with that before trying to weld. No excess weight is really put on the tiller and as it is able to freely move up and down I might be able to get away with it.
We shall see
Cheers
BP
Too many Seagulls to count now!
Member SOS, AOMCI,
President of AOMCI's WOOC chapter
Before you decide, set the steering friction to steers easy, attach to your boat, wind it up to full throttle & let the tiller arm go, you were expecting this, are you sure you want this to happen when your not expecting it 500 meters from shore?
It won't be a problem on an ornament, but on something you plan on using.
Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
Nice pair of "bargies" Boyd.
I would think a small stud on your THC with a castellated nut and split pin, similar (if not the same as) any 40 type motor of similar vintage. Putty as a repair will be questionable and probably not as strong as you'd think. If it were me i'd weld it, then grind the welds afterwards.
From my perpesctive these W series 102's aren't very well documented in my data lists. When you get 5 mins could you put up a few better close up pics for me to study.
You are absolutely right to question the shaft length with some of these bargepushers though! I was always under the impression that these only came in 1 shaft length. Long?
Although i must admit to seeing a few standard shaft ones about very recently, similar to what's going on in the silver century plus motors and so on.
From what i've seen so far with most types of motors there's 3 typical clutch levers for these "classics". Later "sealed" boxes have a completely different looking lever so they're quite easy to identify.
headdownarseup
From my perspective these W series 102's aren't very well documented in my data lists. When you get 5 mins could you put up a few better close up pics for me to study.
Jon, I'll get some more pics for you as soon as I can. I'll also send you the data from both of these motors when I get the chance.
Regarding welding or using putty; I have been thinking about it over the past few days - if anyone else has tackled a repair like this before how have you done it?
Welding is definitely the 'don't need to worry about it falling off when you're motoring along' approach...
Input is much appreciated.
Cheers
BP
Too many Seagulls to count now!
Member SOS, AOMCI,
President of AOMCI's WOOC chapter
Boyd
In the next couple of months i intend to have a look at welding some of my broken bits of seagull. (props with chunks missing,badly corroded gearboxes, broken tiller mounts etc. etc.) I've got a growing collection of broken bits that desperately need some attention now.
Low heat aluminium brazing rods i think might be a good way, just enough heat from a blowtorch to do the job without doing too much damage to the surrounding metal. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks in advance for the data on your 2.
From memory that makes around 6 bargies on the list now! Not many at all considering everything else on there is conventional 2.5 : 1 gears either clutched or direct drive.
The low heat aluminium brazing rods work very well as long as the surface is clean. Problem with that is the aluminium used on many of these older motors was very porous, hence as heat is applied contaminants can be released. In fact I have experienced oil/grease residue soften and transfer from internal surfaces to external surfaces ie because of the high porosity of the aluminium and the greatly reduced viscosity of oil/grease residue.
Most gull gearboxes are fairly simple to pull apart and clean out thoroughly, but I found in the case of my Verity, there are chambers within the gearcase that are not accessible for cleaning. Hence as heat is applied, old caked on grease softens and leaches through the alloy. To that end, I have experienced several failures already whilst attempting low heat aluminium brazing (or lead filling) repairs. I've not been able to find anything yet that I can soak the gearcase in to soften and expel the grease from these inaccessible cavities.
Back to gulls, my advice would be to apply heat to extract any contaminants etc, clean thoroughly and repeat process as much as is needed before moving to brazing.
Tried that stuff Jon, "low temp" seems to be about 400 degrees centigrade & that's above annealing temp.
And the rods seems to be a high zinc alloy & that's similar to sacrificial anodes so it's best not to let it get too wet, & the aluminium has to be real clean, I've used it & wasn't impressed!
Up to now I haven't discovered anything better than Tig welding.
Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
And the rods seems to be a high zinc alloy & that's similar to sacrificial anodes so it's best not to let it get too wet, & the aluminium has to be real clean, I've used it & wasn't impressed!
Up to now I haven't discovered anything better than Tig welding.
I have also used the "low temp" rods and would not recommend them for what you are trying to do.
100% on the Tig!
"THE KING OF BLING"!
Is it better to over think, than not think at all?
On removing grease/oil from difficult spots,a pot/tank of boiling water for an hour works wonders.Everything floats to the top and can be strained off In my younger days we used propane gas cylinders with cooking rings attached,have ye ever seen an 81mm long barrel cooking?
we used propane gas cylinders with cooking rings attached,have ye ever seen an 81mm long barrel cooking?